Visual Arts Content Literacy: A Partnership Between Art Educators and Special Educators

Content literacy is necessary for students to be successful in meeting the national core arts standards in the areas of creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. Art educators can with work special educators to support students with disabilities to develop disciplinary literacy using an adapted Before-During-After (B-D-A) content literacy model. This article examines the development and application of content literacy supports for an inclusive visual art class. The article outlines actionable steps to support a student before, during, and after artmaking. Coordination between the special education teacher and art education teacher is necessary to implement these differentiated strategies.